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Can town leaders fix state taxes?

Justin Gokey holds his daughter Ashley, 4, as she casts a ballot for him during the re-vote on the Westford school budget at the Westford Elementary School on April 29.
(Photo:
GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS
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Fresh off the heels of school budget defeats, local government officials are drumming for changes to the state education property tax structure in 2015.

But first, they have to understand how education property taxes work.

Leaders from Burlington, Colchester, Milton and South Burlington have invited school and municipal officials from around the state to gather next week for a conference focused on education property tax and funding reform.

"I think, quite honestly, the magnitude of the problem in Vermont requires a pretty unique response," said South Burlington City Manager Kevin Dorn, a member of the event's organizing committee.

The event is scheduled to last more than five hours on Thursday at South Burlington High School.

Some legislators may attend, but the goal is to "create a purely local-government voice for reform," according to the invitation.

"It's just that the organizing group felt it was important for municipal people to talk to municipal people," Dorn said. "And if legislators are there as observers, that's great."

The event will include presentations on reform from the Vermont School Boards Association and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, a panel of local officials talking about how tax pressure impacts their communities, and an explanation of Acts 60 and 68, Dorn said.

No policy statement will result from the conference, Dorn said. Any action would take place at individual school boards, selectboards and councils.

"We're not there to debate as much as we are there to inform," Dorn said. "What people then decide to take back to their local boards — or if they'll even do anything with it — is totally up to them."

Burlington's school budget was defeated in March for the first time in a decade, and a revised budget narrowly passed on a second try. Mayor Miro Weinberger is a member of the organizing committee for the conference.

Weinberger said he's currently in "listening mode" and open to any reforms that would address property tax trends while strengthening Vermont education.

Brian Palaia, town manager of Milton, where voters rejected the Town Meeting Day school budget this year, is also a member of the committee — as is Dawn Francis of Colchester, where school budgets failed twice before passing on June 3.

Dorn said the event would cost no more than $1,500 and will be paid for by South Burlington or possibly split among the organizing committee members' towns.

State Rep. Jim Condon, D-Colchester, said he plans to attend the conference. He thinks the chance of education funding reform happening in 2015 is "pretty good," he said.

"We're really at a tipping point right now," Condon said, "and we rely way too much on the property tax to pay for education, more so than any other state in the country. And it's time to take some of the burden off the property taxpayers."

The gathering of local officials is a welcome step, said Rep. Don Turner, R-Milton.

"There's no easy fix," Turner said. "Having all the stakeholders engaged early is going to be key to getting it resolved in a timely manner."

The conference begins at 9 a.m. on Thursday and is open to the public, Dorn said, but officials and others who are interested in attending have been asked to contact Celine Ingalls in South Burlington at cingalls@sburl.com or 846-4152.

Contact April Burbank at 660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank